My Watch "Lab"

[sstakoff]

Vintage Cherry bench from the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking in Woodside, New York

My Bulova Watchmaster ultrasonic and an older L&R cleaner

Work in progress:

Parts and supplies:

Larger tools and more supplies:

 

Various Horotec presses - Crystal, case, hands, crown/pusher tube press. Some other crystal presses including a BB. Timing machine is on the right.

Ultrasonic and steamer

Lathe - in parts awaiting cleaning....

Waiting their turn:

Edited June 25, 2016 by sstakoff

[jdm]

Very nice, pls post bigger pics next time 

[sstakoff]

29 minutes ago, jdm said:

Very nice, pls post bigger pics next time 

Sorry about that - here ya go!

[dadistic]

I'm jealous 

[oldhippy]

Very nice. Why so many screwdriver sets?

[sstakoff]

6 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Very nice. Why so many screwdriver sets?

Good question! I really only use the newer Bergeon set. The others are in not-so-great shape and I may pull one now and again if I need to use a thin blade to pry something up.

[Don]

Great setup! That looks like a heavy duty microscope.

[sstakoff]

5 hours ago, Don said:

Great setup! That looks like a heavy duty microscope.

Thank you. Microscope is pretty good. Info here: https://amzn.com/B00A1ZSRH2

Camera not so great, but I regularly use the microscope for certain operations such as oiling endstones and pallets. Also great for close parts inspection. Just takes a bit of getting used to. I wear eyeglasses, so I constantly need to flip them off before looking through as they bump into the eye hoods. I believe they make a special hood to address this but I haven't purchased.

[Alienfox]

Wow, impressive, puts my dinning table and a few tools to shame.

Note to self, Get a proper table and some decent tools, when I grow up I want to have a room like SStakeoff.

[sstakoff]

A little off topic, but since you mentioned dining tables - here are a few shots of mine - which I crafted from this reclaimed 9 foot section of bowling lane. 2.5 inches of solid maples for the first 7 feet. On the left you can see the "splice" where it transitions to pine. The arrows are inlaid walnut.

 

The engine crane I needed to lift this -- the wood weights about 350 pounds.

 

Lots of sanding and finishing:

 

The extruded aluminum base - weights 120 pounds

 

And the finished product:

[Cad101]

That's impressive nice work. After dinner do you pull up some steps get your shoes on layout the pins and have a quick game

[sstakoff]

Ha!  Trust me, I've heard many comments - like "That table is striking". Truth is I'm not a big bowler - but it's a super nice piece of wood. I drove 100 miles and rented a truck to bring it home. A friend gave me a great gift of salt and pepper shakers made from actual bowling pins. That's about as far as I'll take the bowling theme. Someone suggested getting some old time paper scorecards, laminating them and using them as place mats.... One thing I can say for sure - at 9 feet and close to 500 pounds total weight, that thing is now part of the house, and it will be included if and when we sell the house, because I'm sure as hell not interested in moving it again!

 

[Cad101]

I'd sell it rather than leave it. Someone would pay a pretty penny for a 9 foot long dinning table of such quality. and think of the watch you could buy with the profits.

[sstakoff]

You do raise a very interesting point

[OmarHaltam]

very nice setup, thanks for sharing

[Alienfox]

On 7/13/2016 at 0:04 PM, sstakoff said:

A little off topic, but since you mentioned dining tables - here are a few shots of mine - which I crafted from this reclaimed 9 foot section of bowling lane. 2.5 inches of solid maples for the first 7 feet. On the left you can see the "splice" where it transitions to pine. The arrows are inlaid walnut.

 

The engine crane I needed to lift this -- the wood weights about 350 pounds.

 

Lots of sanding and finishing:

 

The extruded aluminum base - weights 120 pounds

 

And the finished product:

Wow, that is cool, obviously a talented man, unfortunately my dining room is too small for something that size, did I also mention that my dining table is made of glass.

[sstakoff]

3 hours ago, Alienfox said:

Wow, that is cool, obviously a talented man

Thank you. I did have quite a bit of help from several friends who spent many hours sanding, cutting, inlaying the triangles on the edge banding, and the list goes on...

By the way, these lanes would make a seriously awesome workshop bench - not as a main watchmaker's bench, but for a general workshop / garage. The sad truth is that most of this wood gets scrapped when they tear down bowling alleys. I read an article about a land developer that tore down a bowling alley in order to construct a new shopping center. I called his office and asked what he did with the wood. Fortunately, he recognized that it was beautiful wood and he had a maintenance building with sufficient storage space to keep it. He sold it to me for a very reasonable fee.

[arkobugg]

On 26.6.2016 at 0:31 AM, sstakoff said:

Vintage Cherry bench from the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking in Woodside, New York

My Bulova Watchmaster ultrasonic and an older L&R cleaner

Work in progress:

Parts and supplies:

Larger tools and more supplies:

 

Various Horotec presses - Crystal, case, hands, crown/pusher tube press. Some other crystal presses including a BB. Timing machine is on the right.

Ultrasonic and steamer

Lathe - in parts awaiting cleaning....

Waiting their turn:

Very nice Mr, looks like a tidy man you are....   :-)